1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic devices with communication functionality, and more particularly, to methods and apparatuses which use information management for positioning electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices can support various services based on their positions, e.g., user positioning services, routing services, reducing power consumption, and enhancing network connectivity. Such location-based services (“LBSs”) encompass all services that may obtain location information of electronic devices.
The global positioning system (GPS) is used to locate a position of user's electronic device. The method may include receiving satellite coordinates-related signals from multiple satellites revolving the earth to obtain the coordinates of each satellite and information regarding the distance from the satellite. An electronic device may be positioned using a trilateration method based on the coordinate and distance information obtained. The GPS provides a good performance outdoors and has broad availability for positioning and guidance services. The GPS-based trilateration method, however, consumes too much power due to the reception and processing of satellite signals by the GPS, rendering it unfit into steady, long-term use for the portable devices that utilize it.
Additionally, such GPS-based positioning of an electronic device is inadequate for use in portable devices which are located in downtown areas that are compacted with tall buildings, which may result lowering in accuracy, e.g., due to a difficulty in securing a line of sight (LOS) of satellite signals.
Further, cellular signal-based positioning is subject to significant deterioration or variation in positioning capability because radio channel fading causes a distance between the transmission point of a cell and the electronic device not to be directly related to the strength or round trip time of received signals.
Moreover, cell location information necessary for positioning the electronic device is retained in a memory or storage space simply in the form of a table, and whenever necessary, is read out. However, the data structure of a database could be impossible to represent in a simple table or list form for the purpose of positioning highly-advanced electronic devices, and smartphones or other portable devices might have a limited storage space. Furthermore, since an electronic device may have its characteristic and accessible areas separated per processing device, it may present different processing speeds or power consumptions depending on how the information (e.g., database) is managed.